Grupo Sagardi, career award at Hot Concept 2019

Grupo Sagardi has been awarded a prize at the Hot Concepts awards ceremony held yesterday at Madrid’s Teatro Goya. These prizes are one of the top national distinctions in the restaurant industry, which awards prizes in more than 17 categories. Recognition of Grupo Sagardi’s years in the sector, along with its evolution and adaptability, are particularly important for the Group since this year we’re celebrating our 25th anniversary.

Sagardi’s commitment to tradition, product and the international expansion of Basque cuisine are just some of the aspects which earned it this prize. “This recognition of our history comes at a very special time for us, as we are celebrating 25 years since my brother Mikel and I opened our first restaurant in Barcelona’s old quarter. Since then, we have never stopped growing and internationalising, reaching countries like Mexico, Argentina and the United Kingdom, while always remaining loyal to our roots. This award is recognition of our professional and personal efforts, and of our loyalty to and love for Basque cuisine and tradition”, said Iñaki López de Viñaspre, Grupo Sagardi president and chef.

The Viñaspre brothers’ project was born 25 years ago with Barcelona’s IRATI restaurant, the seed of the current Sagardi Cocineros Vascos restaurants, which were consolidated with the creation of the Grupo Sagardi. This project was launched with the goal of reviving traditional Basque cooking, the kind served in cider bars and taverns in villages, and exporting it all over the world with a high-quality, solid and authentic proposal. Since then, the group has only grown and evolved until it now has more than 30 restaurants of its own, primarily in Spain in cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Ibiza and Seville, but also all over the world in locations like Porto, London, Buenos Aires and Mexico, while it is also diversifying into other gastronomic concepts under other brand names.

They have always exported Basque cuisine while striving to attain the highest quality possible and source from ecological agriculture and their own vegetable gardens. There are no middlemen between the producers and Grupo Sagardi, which means that their food has direct ties with the land and a sense of locality; it is ultimately a healthy, unsophisticated, roots-based cooking.

The prize-winners in the different Hot Concepts categories were determined by a jury made up of professionals from the Spanish hotel and restaurant industry, including José María Carrillo, CEO of Tastia Group, and Luis Suárez de Lezo, President of the Madrid Gastronomy Academy.

The awards ceremony for Hot Concepts, organised by Restauración News and Grupo Peldaño and this year in its sixteenth edition, gathered together the leading figures in the business world of the hotel and restaurant industry.